When the Paetow boys cross country team began its season, coach Kenneth Decuir and his runners targeted a first-time berth at regionals as a realistic goal to pursue.

Still, they never envisioned the storybook way the achievement would be accomplished.

Paetow took the third and final team spot to regionals by a single point against Magnolia West at the District 19-5A championships on Oct. 17 at Burroughs Park. Junior Samuel Hinojosa was the top finisher for the Panthers (7th, 17:45.6), followed by junior Eman Forero (10th, 17:56.6), junior Miguel Franco (19th, 18:29.4), sophomore Seth Reid (20th, 18:29.6) and sophomore Rory Brown (35th, 19:12.7).

Freshman Nicolas Valdez was the team’s sixth runner.

“Honestly, when we crossed the line, Sam and I knew we were top 10 and going to regionals,” Forero said. “And I turned around, I saw Seth and Miguel cross the line, and I said, ‘Yo, that’s pretty good. They finished right behind us.’ And then we’re waiting, and we saw our fifth and sixth coming up, and we’re like, ‘We don’t know, that’s close.’”

The team and Decuir found out they had qualified the way anyone else would in 2019—the internet.

“This was our first time going in as a school, and it felt good to make that history,” Hinojosa said. “It just felt really good to say that we got it.”

Decuir said he was also caught by surprise when he found out the team had qualified for regionals.

“I was out watching the girls’ JV race, and we were updating the website for scores, and (girls’ head) coach (Erin) Atwood said, ‘Dude, you got third place,’” he said. “I didn’t believe her at first. I thought we had gotten fourth. I knew it was close, but I thought we were on the short end of the deal, but it worked out for us.”

In addition to the boys team, the Paetow girls program will also be represented by a runner for the first time at regionals. Junior Logan Warren finished in ninth place with a time of 20:50.8, qualifying as an individual.

“It feels really good, because I’ve been training a lot for it,” she said. “So to finally be able to go, it feels pretty awesome.”

The UIL Region III cross country championships take place Monday, Oct. 28, at Kate Barr-Ross Park in Huntsville. The 5A girls race is at noon and the boys race at 12:35 p.m., with other teams from Katy competing in the 6A races at 1:50 p.m. and 2:25 p.m., respectively.

For Decuir, the berth to regionals is something that can be built on in future years, as well as a sign of what his squad has accomplished.

“Everybody says, ‘Wow, you came out of nowhere,’” he said. “Yes, to most people, we didn’t do well last year. But when you see how much work the kids have put in, and those who have been in the program and stayed with the program for the last two or three years, they understand that there have been some rough times and they just kept grinding. So it’s exciting for the kids to see that if you put in the hard work, good things happen.”

Decuir said he saw something different from the kids this year as well.

“It progressed throughout the season, as far as the chemistry between the kids and the work ethic; it was completely different,” he said, comparing it to previous years. “We could see the change there, and that’s when we started talking about (making regionals) on a regular basis. ‘Let’s not just show up to district to say we showed up to district, let’s show up with the intentions of being competitive and moving on.’”

With that goal in mind, the team’s training regimen changed.

“Last year, we wouldn’t have easy runs,” Forero said. “It was just hard runs every day. Last year, we weren’t really thinking with a mindset of getting past district, we were just running. But this year, we were like, ‘Okay, we actually have to do something to keep it up.’”

The new emphasis on peaking late in the season showed results, as four of the Panthers’ top five runners set personal records, with the fifth near his previous best. Warren noted that she also made a more serious, concerted effort to post her best possible time at the district meet this year.

“I think it was mostly the culmination of work, but a couple of days before the race I got a whole lot more sleep,” she said, adding that adopting a steady regimen led to a nearly two-minute improvement over the year.

Both Paetow programs have been gradually building up in numbers and in strength. Warren said the girls program only had five runners her freshman year but had 8-11 runners this year.

Forero and Decuir said the boys team had 6-8 runners its first year, with runners falling in and out because of the difficulty of the workouts or concerns about their other sports. The team now has 19 runners, enough to field a varsity, JV and a freshman team.

“I wouldn’t change the way this team has developed because, ultimately, I think it took this program to where it needed to be and it can continue to grow,” Decuir said. “I think the success we’ve had this year will work as a recruiting tool to pull more kids in, and I think the camaraderie the kids have built is something that other kids will want to be a part of.”